Mercurial middleweight Matt Horwich (26-18-1) can still take pride in the fact that he’s never been knocked out in nearly 50 professional fights, but he can’t say he’s never been dominated.

UFC and WEC veteran Danillo Villefort (13-3) controlled “Suave” both on the feet and the floor for the entirety of their 15-minute affair.

The bout served as the featured contest of Friday’s Shark Fights 14
event, which took place at Fair Park City Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas,
and aired live on HDNet.

Villefort showed his superiority early in the fight by lighting up Horwich with well-time striking combinations. Front kicks to the thigh and crisp punches to the chin all found their mark, and Horwich looked lost early. When the grappling stylist tried to slow the onslaught with a clinch, Villefort simply hip-tossed him to the floor. However, “Indio” refused to engage longer than necessary on the floor.

It was very much rinse and repeat in rounds two and three. Horwich was dumped to the floor on multiple occasions, and a final-round standing back-elbow opened up a gash on his nose. Horwich’s trademark durability remained in place for the entirety of the contest, and in a creative grappling twist, he trapped Villefort’s left arm behind his back briefly before deftly transitioning to an earnest omo plata attempt. However, Villefort outlasted the hold until the final bell signified his clear-cut win, which he took with a 30-27 result on all three judges’ cards.

With the win, Villefort is now 4-0 since his 2009 release from the UFC. Meanwhile, Horwich falls to 2-2 in his past four outings.

In the evening’s co-feature, 125-pound female contender Tara LaRosa (20-2) solidified her claim as the world’s top super flyweight with an impressive submission win over Carina Damm (15-6).

The bout started out as a relatively slow-paced kickboxing contest, but LaRosa earned the best of the early action with well-time counterpunches over Damm’s low-kick attacks. Damm did have a brief shining moment when she earned a takedown trip and landed in mount. However, she immediately transitioned to an armbar attempt, and LaRosa swept to top position when she escaped from the hold. LaRosa capitalized with a bit of ground and pound, but it was in the second frame when she would truly take control.

After catching an early low kick, LaRosa sent Damm to the floor with a punch over the top. While LaRosa followed to the floor, it was Damm who took to the attack by falling back into a heel-hook attempt. While defending the hold for several seconds, LaRosa swiftly countered with her own inverted heel-hook that torqued Damm’s knee and forced a near-immediate tapout just 28 seconds into the frame.

With the win, LaRosa has now earned two-straight wins since her surprising split-decision loss to Roxanne Modafferi and is expected to challenge for Shark Fights’ 125-pound title in the near future. Meanwhile, Brazilian Damm has now dropped three-consecutive matchups.

While Mike Bronzoulis (12-2-1) and Lucas Lopes (19-12) appeared to gas early in their three-round catchweight affair, that didn’t stop the two combatants from standing toe-to-toe in a brutal, albeit less-than-technical, affair.

Lopes relied on a Muay Thai approach that included kicks to all levels and the occasional spinning backfist. While he landed effectively in the opening sound, it was an exhausted Bronzoulis who began to take control in the latter stages of the fight. Utilizing a brutal barrage of knees from the clinch, Bronzoulis left Lopes’ face a bloody mess. Lopes tried to get the fight to the floor, but Bronzoulis shucked off the feeble attempts while continuing to deliver knees to the head and body. Both fighters nearly collapsed from exhaustion at the final bell, but Bronzoulis walked away with a unanimous-decision win.

Eight-time Shark Fight veteran Eric Davila (19-10) looked out of sorts for nearly two full rounds of his welterweight matchup with Alex Cisne before a right hand changed everything for “Big Head.”

Davila rocked Cisne in the closing moments of the second round, and though he lasted until the bell, he never truly recovered from the blow. Bleeding, dazed and exhausted, Cisne walked forward with a few lazy strikes in the final round, but Davila answered with a flurry of blows that send his opponent crashing to the mat. The onslaught was mercifully halted 63 seconds into the final round.

After missing an early high kick, Vasquez found himself flat on his back but nearly scored an armbar. He’d eventually get the finish but not before Hernandez flashed incredible heart. The pair scrambled back and forth, and Hernandez gutted through a second-round high kick that connected flush on the gym, as well as a third-round straight that buckled his legs. Unfortunately, he shot directly into a guillotine choke that Vasquez squeezed until Hernandez drifted into unconsciousness 89 seconds into the final round.

The evening’s first televised contest appeared to be a one-sided matchup in the early going, as Sean Shakour (3-1) scored and early takedown and held back control throughout the opening round. But Lubbock-based bantamweight Jospeh Sandoval (5-0) took control of the final two rounds with a relentless ground-and-pound assault that ultimately earned him the unanimous-decision win, 29-28 on all three judges cards.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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